November 30, 2021

 The heavy rains are continuing and we worry about areas nearby where they are already trying to drain and combat flood conditions created by previous rains. We also fear having more mudslides on the mountain highways in addition to the ones that have already occurred. There are shortages of needed items in some areas and gas is being rationed in most of southwestern BC and the island. We are grateful for our electric car but sincerely hope there are no power outages which would create a problem for us. On top of floods, summer fires, political unrest in many countries, fighting over covid vaccinations and covid in general, another variant of the disease has surfaced in several South African countries and the world is on alert again. There seems to be no end to the dramatic scenes being played out on our earthly stage at the moment. We are all searching for peace, safety and normalcy. We all feel as though we need a safe, warm vacation.

We have been working to complete our Christmas preparations and gift giving as we will be returning to Germany the end of next week. We have our house and tree decorated, our gifts delivered to our ministering people and most of our neighbors and our Christmas cards ordered but not completed yet. I have made one batch of my Christmas almonds and most bags have already been given away. Trish got here early Saturday morning and gave me a much needed haircut before we left for our Temple Shift and she received one of the nut bags. The others went with Christmas arrangements delivered to neighbors and the Barroby family.

We went to a Temple session on Wednesday morning and Tom served in the Temple Wednesday evening for Brother Barrett. I am not sure when that will change as the Americans are still unable to get across the border without being covid tested and that comes at a cost. How we miss our Bellingham Stake at the Temple and now with floods and highways washed out we are also missing the Vernon Stake and the Prince George Stake. A few people from the island venture over and  now with flooding in the valley, only part of the Abbotsford Stake are able to make it in. I go with Tom Wednesday evenings and we serve our own shift Saturday afternoon. It was understandably quiet this last Saturday. Tom served as sealer but we only had ordinance workers to help out.

Max is preparing to leave for Australia and getting everything in ordered. He wanted to set up an HSBC account to expedite the banking process but that requires a 30 day waiting period which he does not have. He asked if we could help him meet our HSBC banking personnel as we use that bank. We met him there on Thursday and made the decision to open a joint account with him but found we still needed to make an appointment with Linda our main banking advisor to complete the process so we will return later this week to take care of that. Tom has decided to give each of the grandchildren $25,000 around the time they get married and because he let Max have the full amount of money from the sale of our BMW, which was $8,500, he is going to give Max $16,500 to add to our joint account. We are hoping this gives the kids a little boost. We will close the joint account once Max has his own account set up in Australia.

We are praying and hoping that the world does not shutdown international travel because of the new covid variant but my heart feels like it will be okay. Tom will probably require at least two more trips to Germany for treatments. We are doing our best. We have both had two covid shots plus a booster and we have also had our flu shots. Most importantly our pleas are extended heavenward and that is the very best thing we can do.

November 23, 2021

 It is Keaton’s birthday and only Keaton would get on the family chat site to wish himself a Happy Birthday. He is 13 years old today. The days come and go with their events and celebrations and their ups and their downs. Our exciting news this week came for Max. We awoke Monday morning to the family all abustle on the Extended Family site with news of Max departing to Australia December 14th. Word had come Sunday evening that visa holders would be allowed into Australia as of December 1 and Max was booked and ready to go. We are all so thrilled for both he and Jacqui for they can now go ahead with their long awaited for marriage. They will be married December 18 and hope to fly back here in the spring for Tom to seal them and to celebrate with family here. They have made the most of their Covid courtship - FaceTiming each day, doing online dating, receiving their endowments on the same day on different continents, serving in their church callings and most recently Max sacrificing his beard to accept a call to serve in the Temple. We are so happy for them.

I finally got to my PT appointment and had my back and neck worked on. I wish Tom could have some work done on his back to relieve his sciatic pain but everyone worries about touching his back with cancer in his bones. We attended two Temple sessions this week and served Wednesday evening and our regular shift Saturday Temple afternoon. We attended the second session, Friday morning, to be there with our dear neighbor Jean. Melissa Rolfson had invited Jean to come and Jean wanted us to be there with her. We are so proud of her. We watched the Vancouver Stake Conference via zoom on Sunday as Elders Wong and Wolsey were there to change the Stake Presidency. George Goeders, Joe Bateman and Chris Miller were released and Bishop (President) Kenneth Bateman, Chris Miller and Greg Hall were put in. All good men. President Bateman is the North Shore bishop at the moment but will quickly be released. Another North Shore Stake President! Almost all the Vancouver Stake Presidents have come from the North Shore including Tom. We started Christmas decorating this week past week and hope to be finished in the next day or so. We go on short daily walks, trying to keep Tom’s strength up. We are already making plans for our return trip to Germany for Tom’s December 13th second round of treatments. 

Recovery from our heavy rains and floods has been moving forward amid gas shortages and now fear of more rain in the forecast. We carry on, carry on, carry on! We are living in an interesting and challenging time for us personally and for all mankind collectively.

November 16, 2021

 

I would eat each day at the guest room, then pack up and walk up to the hospital where I would have WiFi and I could connect with Tom. The children would FaceTime and message me later in the day when they were just up and getting ready for their day. I would buy my food at the small cafeteria and take some back to my room to eat for dinner each night and for my breakfast in the morning. I also tended to business in the hospital that Tom would ask me to take care of. It was a little lonely for me but I was grateful to communicate with the children and others who would write me. I would read my scriptures but try not to use too much power on my devices. I found one outlet where I could plug in to charge up but I still tried to conserve. I would charge all the devices thru the night after listening to an audio book before going to bed. As I walked back to the Kindergarten and guest room each night, I would stop under a street light and wave to Tom who would be standing in his hospital room window. He was unable to watch me all the way back as he lost view of me when I hit the forested area.

Tom was released from isolation Wednesday afternoon and we were able to be together. He was ready to explore the hospital. It is a lovely facility and Tom got us into one of the beautiful atriums to sit for awhile. He has a treatment friend who is from California. His name is Bill Powers and he is here for his second and final treatment. He is showing Tom all the ropes and sharing insights and food condiments that he brought with him. The Germans don’t seem to put mayonnaise or mustard on their sandwiches and Bill brought sample packets of both to use and a jar of peanut butter. Though the patients are in isolation the doctors, nurses and cleaners still come in and out of their rooms to talk to them but Tom had to change his clothes when he came out to be with me. He and Bill could visit in each other’s rooms once restrictions were somewhat lifted.

Thursday finally came and we met with Doctor Kulkarni before being released. He seemed pleased with Tom’s reaction to his treatment and we are scheduled for another treatment on December 13. Tom had arranged for a taxi to take us to the train station in Erfurt rather than the bus this time. It cost about $100 Canadian and Tom was not happy. We caught the direct train to the Frankfurt Airport which was much better than having to change trains in Frankfurt. The airport train station is right by our hotel the Marriott Sheraton so we were able to walk. Once settled we went out to find a restaurant for dinner. We found an Italian one right above the train station and the food was delicious. So nice to have a good meal together. We arranged to have a wheelchair pick us up at the hotel to take us to our Lufthansa gate in the morning and that worked out well except we forgot to have him take us to check our small bags thru but we managed. The flight home went well and we appreciated the premium economy seats with more room. Tom’s legs were a little swollen from all his fluid intake this week, lack of movement outside his room and flying. Paul picked us up at the Vancouver airport and got us safely home. We had made it and we recognized that we had experienced miracles and had been blessed all along the way.

We had our Saturday Temple shift covered for us in order to have a little time to get our feet on the ground although we did’t feel too bad on Saturday. Tom even offered to go into the Temple if Jackson needed to have him cover his final hour of sealings but Brother Bigler said they would be fine. The weekend brought a very strong Pineapple Express storm from Hawaii with winds and a great deal of rain. I was to get a booster shot at the outdoor clinic on Monday and also go to a PT appointment, however, both were cancelled due to the severity of the storm. We lost power for several hours Monday afternoon. When things finally settled by Tuesday we found we had flooded towns, highways washed out and stranded communities, cars and people. It has put our area into a disaster zone category. People are rushing to grocery stores and panic buying again. We hadn’t even considered panicking but things are certainly worse than we realized. 

We did a temple session Tuesday morning and then we went to a Surrey community Center for me to get my postponed covid booster. We both had phone call doctors’ appointments in the afternoon with our individual GPs. Terry Gledstone delivered our reupholstered kitchen chairs and they look lovely. Justin FaceTimed to tell us about the baby’s ultrasound and Rosemarie Scheimann brought us a dinner from the Relief Society Presidency. It was a full day and we are feeling pretty good but still a little weary from our journey.

November 8, 2021

 This has been an interesting  and very blessed week. I am writing from Germany and Tom is receiving his treatment as I type. We have prayed for this and continue to pray that the treatment will be a great benefit for him. We have certainly moved forward on the wings and prayers of angels. We cannot express our feelings when we consider all the prayers being offered on our behalf and the love people have extended to us and the arms that have been wrapped around us literally and figuratively. Friends like Sabina have helped us with German translation, others have messaged and reached out to us, Chris and Minna brought nose spray Chris has developed to protect us from the virus and we have truly felt lifted and loved. 

We went to see our medical oncologist Doctor Suo for the first time on Wednesday. We expected that he would be annoyed at us for leaving the country for treatment and encourage us to remain in Canada and go with chemotherapy or some such treatment. We were wrong and he was thrilled for us. He said he was planning on trying to encourage us to join a Theranostic clinical trial being done in Vancouver. We are aware of the trial but we also know that trials are random and Tom may not actually be given the real treatment and felt we needed to move forward on our own and insure he gets the needed treatment. Doctor Suo suggested we may want to participate in DNA studies that may be of help to Tom, our family and others so we gladly did that and we met with the fellow over the studies and Tom gave a blood sample. Our radiation oncologist grabbed us and said that a neck scan he had Tom take this week showed cancer at the base of the skull and in the cranium and he wants to do radiation in the area if Germany doesn’t provide improvement this week.. He seemed okay with us going too. Tom has also let Doctor Collingridge know and Dr. Vrabec has always been in favour of us going. We feel like our medical personnel are now behind us too. Tom had researched this treatment as soon as he was diagnosed and has always felt good about it. We prayed and he qualified with the PSMA scan and we feel we are doing what we are suppose to do.

We spent Thursday organizing and packing up and Friday finally came with Paul driving us to the airport. I had known we would need special blessings to make this journey as Tom’s back problems have limited his abilities and I have never taken the lead in travelling and it is usually Tom taking care of me and seeing to my needs. This would be an entirely different situation and I prayed for strength and for angels from both sides of the veil. They certainly came from the moment we entered the Vancouver airport. When I asked if I could leave Tom at the front of the check-in line while I stood and moved up gradually, the woman in charge put both of us at the front of the line and we checked our bags and then the “walker” before boarding the golf cart for a ride to our gate. They took Tom to the plane in a wheelchair when it was time to go and we were off. We had upgraded tickets in order to have more comfortable seating and the flight went well. When we landed in Frankfurt the airline had provided two wheelchairs to get us thru the airport and they insisted that I sit in the second chair as they wheeled us thru the airport at a fast pace, picked up our luggage, got us thru customs quickly and then to the train station connected to the airport. They remained with us until they saw to it that we were set up for our train connection. When we moved down to train’s departure area another man appeared having been assigned to help us onto the train. We went into Frankfurt where yet another man appeared with a wheelchair to transfer us to our next and final train. A couple befriended us on our three hour journey and when we arrived at Erfurt, our destination,  the husband jumped up to help us off the train. We connected with a bus in Erfurt and while boarding the bus I asked the woman ahead of us if this was the bus to Bad Berka and she grabbed our bags and got us settled on board. She talked to the bus driver to let him know we were to get off at the ZentralKlinik in Bad Berka before she got off at an earlier stop. We had arrived at our destination!  In Europe things close on the weekend and in the evenings and, though we were able to check into our guest room, there was no cafeteria open in the hospital and only vending machine food available. We were exhausted, hadn’t really slept for two days nor eaten since we left the plane. They tested Tom for covid, we bought some vending machine sandwiches and as it was getting dark and cold outside tried to walk to our guest room down the road but being tired and uncertain where to go, we failed in our attempt to find the yellow kindergarten building they had told us to go to. I left Tom seated in the walker with the luggage and ran back to the hospital to ask for some help. The night receptionist was alone and could not leave her post but a cute nurse came along and hearing of our plight suggested we wait until she had a break and she would get us to our room in the kindergarten building. Her name was Ronje and she finally bustled us down the road with Tom in a wheelchair, carried our bags and walker up the stairs and made sure we were settled before leaving. She was our angel as had been so many others that day. We felt cared for every step of our journey. It is difficult for us to have to rely on others and Tom has a hard time not being able to work thru our travel agendas on our own but today we were more than grateful for the help we received. We had literally been lifted and carried.

Our next concern was food for the next day, I prayed all night for help and direction. We had some bars I  had from my bag for breakfast and I had a strong feeling we needed to return to the hospital ready in our Sunday clothes in case we could make contact with the Bishop Tom had been communicating with and someone would  come to give us the sacrament. I also felt that food would somehow be provided for us. At the ZentralKlinik they have organized check-in times when patients from all over the country and world line up to check-in. Sunday afternoon is one of the main assigned check-in times. We were hours early but they checked us in anyway and told Tom to go up to his assigned room to let them know he was there. He hurried back down with news that they had told him because he was checked in, he qualified for lunch and because they had an extra lunch that day they would allow his wife to eat with him.  When we returned to his floor the nurse, appropriately named Christian, had a lovely hot pork roast dinner set out on a table in the visitors room with bottled water and juice. We were overwhelmed at what had just happened and how our prayers had been so literally answered in a way we could never have imagined. Our hearts and tummies were full. The Bishop said the missionaries would make contact with us but when we heard nothing, we returned to our room and had the sacrament on our own with a little bread from another vending machine sandwich I would be eating later for supper when Tom returned to hospital for the night. He would continue to revive his meals there now and I had enough to make it thru the night until the hospital cafeteria opened the next day.

Monday came which would be Tom’s treatment day. I returned to the hospital where we had WiFi and I could communicate with Tom. His area is considered to be an isolation area because the treatments offered there involve radioactive material. He spent the morning going thru tests and then just after noon he was administered lutetium 177 thru IV and then a water solution IV to wash it thru. He began drinking litres water as well to flush it thru his kidneys. They began scanning and could soon see that lutetium 177 was targeting the cancer sights. Wonderful! It was doing what it was meant to do. I was now able to purchase food at the cafeteria and stay in touch with Tom, our children and others as long as I was in the hospital and on their WiFi. It was somewhat lonely but I felt grateful to be there and have Tom being treated. I would walk home when it was dark having been able spend as much time talking to Tom as I could.

The guest rooms are literally in part of a kindergarten building. They are spacious and comfortable. I would take food to have for dinner and breakfast home with me and return to the hospital as soon as I could to make contact with Tom the next morning.  I would spend most of the day in the lobby area, talk to Tom, read, connect with children and others and take care of any business Tom asked me to see to. It was lonely but I was near to Tom and he wanted me near.

He was now in a 48 hour isolation period so we could FaceTime but I could not go up to see him. So passed my next two days - Tuesday and the first part of Wednesday.

November 2, 2021

 I am updating my blog and will write this week from Germany even though it happened the week before we came here.

It has been at week of Temple attendance and service and a significant week for other reasons. We attended the Temple during the week and then on Friday November 29th we went to the Temple again for Jack to receive his endowments. We met the family in the chapel just before entering the Temple to participate in Jack receiving the Melchizedek Priesthood thus qualify him for his Temple endowment. Those participating in that ordination were his grandfathers, his two older brothers and his father.  A special group of men. We had taught Jack Temple prep and we hoped that it had been a benefit to him. It seemed to go well and Sienne was there to meet him when he came out. He is a special young man and will be a fine missionary in Africa. We returned again on Saturday to serve our afternoon shift. I helped with a Laceste family sealing of Delores Laceste to two of her children - John and Grace and then John was sealed to his wife Amor and their son Eliot to them. It was so nice to be with there. Ron Komm performed the sealing and we had a number of clerical issues that kept me running up and down the stairs to the office but all was eventually accomplished. Jane was there with Ron too. I was exhausted that night and I think Tom was tired too. 

We also zoomed into the funeral service for Rosemary Burgess on Friday. It was lovely and I am sure Rosemary was pleased. Ruth Yates gave the eulogy, the three Burgess children spoke and George Goeders gave the spiritual talk. Our grandchildren and a few others sang “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” and played their ukuleles. It was very touching. Liza sat behind Sayde and held her up because she didn’t want to be seen as she was crying. This has been a difficult few years for their family and hard for Liza too. Ted has been a kind caregiver and both Ted and Rosemary have handled it all with grace. 

We have been busy accomplishing our errands, attending to appointments and making preparations for our trip to Germany. I had a phone blood pressure appointment with the nurse and then the doctor and because my anxiety and blood pressure levels are up a little, the doctor has prescribed to new medication to take in conjunction with my ramipril. It seems to be beneficial and I feel like things have settled. I have a new young doctor, Doctor Song. She seems very nice. Doctor Brouwer has retired.

So our busy lives have gone this week as we move closer to going to Germany and Tom’s cancer treatments.